Best Coolpix for HD and low light too?
in [Digital Cameras]
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From: Neil Harrington on 18 Jun 2010 10:46 "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message news:Xns9D9A8F95FCC1AJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... > tony cooper <tony_cooper213(a)earthlink.net> wrote : > >> On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:50:08 +0100, "David J Taylor" >><david-taylor(a)blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> wrote: >> >>>"Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message >>>news:Xns9D9A179C458ABJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... >>>> Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the >>>> >>>> S90 $350 >>>> S8000 $250 >>>> and SD4000IS $350 >>>> >>>> It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street >>>> price ) >>>> if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit > card >>>> for? >>>> :) >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> - Jane Galt >>> >>>If you're paying that much you might as well get a DSLR - the larger >>>sensor will make for better low-light performance. >>> >> Jane specified in her first post that she wanted a "purse-sized" >> camera. No dslr is truly purse-sized. >> >> I can see why someone wants a pocket-sized or purse-sized camera to >> carry around. There are times you want to have a camera available but >> not carry around a large dslr. > > Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a polarizing > lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a bunch of stuff > in > there, including the XD-45 ACP, Ooooh. My kinda woman. (Though I'm mainly a Beretta guy myself.) > so it's already pretty full and slightly > heavy. ;-) Leave the extra magazine home and that'd save the weight of a pretty good-sized compact camera. :-)
From: Neil Harrington on 18 Jun 2010 11:06 "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message news:Xns9D9A941408A5BJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... > "Neil Harrington" <nobody(a)homehere.net> wrote : > >> >> "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message >> news:Xns9D9A1096BC232JaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... >>> "Neil Harrington" <nobody(a)homehere.net> wrote : >>> >>>> >>>> "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message >>>> news:Xns9D9687834354EJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... >>>>> I'd like to consider a newer purse sized Coolpix. I have the 4500 >>>>> which is nice, but not exactly purse sized. >>>>> >>>>> I like to do a bit of low-light shooting without flash, so it looks >>>>> like the >>>>> S8000 isnt up to that, though the 10x optical zoom sounds nice. >>>>> >>>>> I enjoy mostly scenery and non-flash shots of our shoulder pet birds. >>>>> >>>>> My purse cam is now a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 but the image quality >>>>> isnt as >>>>> nice as the Coolpix. I suspect Nikon makes better quality lenses? >>>>> >>>>> So suggestions? >>>>> >>>>> I need to keep this in the under $300 street price range. >>>> >>>> Of the current crop of Coolpixes, the S640 looks about the best for >>>> your purposes. Its lens is a relatively fast f/2.7 at the short end >>>> and it also has Nikon's "4-way VR" -- both of which will help in >>>> low-light shooting. The "4-way VR" is actually a combination of >>>> optional features and includes Nikon's exclusive Best Shot Selector >>>> feature, by itself a big help in low-light shooting (BSS lets you hold >>>> the shutter release down for up to 10 shots, then saves the sharpest >>>> one; since slow-shutter-speed shots usually vary a lot in sharpness, >>>> this helps a great deal). Also part of the "4-way VR" is the camera's >>>> offering auto ISO settings up to 6400 -- great for low light, though >>>> at the cost of increased noise. I have found high-ISO settings very >>>> useful in Coolpixes despite the increased noise, but I may be more >>>> tolerant of noise in photos than some other people. >>>> >>>> I don't have that particular model myself so can't speak about it from >>>> experience, but I do have a gaggle of other relatively recent >>>> Coolpixes and have consistently fine results from them all. The S640 >>>> has a MSRP of $219.95, so street price should certainly be no more >>>> than that. And it is very compact -- no problem at all for your purse, >>>> you could carry two or three there if you wanted to. >>> >>> Before coming back here to see this, I've been loking around, and am >>> very tempted by the Powershot SD4000IS now, except for the price. Whew. >>> Then the >>> Coolpix S8000 is PHAT too. <sigh> What to do, what to do.... >> >> Buy one of each? :-) > > ROFLMAO > > If only... > >> The S8000's lens is just over 2/3 stop slower (f/3.5 vs f/2.7 of the >> S640), which gives the S640 a slight advantage in low-light shooting, >> all else being equal. Also the S8000 does not have quite the wide-angle >> capability of the S640 (30mm equiv. vs 28mm), which might be of some >> importance to you since you've mentioned your interest in scenery. These >> are reasons I suggested the S640 as being perhaps the best choice for >> your purposes. > > The S640 doesnt get such great reviews on Amazon, though not many reviews > there. Dont see anything about high def stills or movies either. > > Most of what I want to do is either scenery or my pet birds, or > combinations thereof. ( I take one of my parrots out for walks in parks, > on > a leash ) Now THAT must be worth taking a picture of! > I'd also wish for a polarizing filter for any of these but am not > sure if they can do that. Makes a big diff in scenic shots. Very few compact camera lenses are threaded for filters, and really none of the kind we've been talking about (those with lens retracting behind a self-capping gizmo). I should think you could just hand-hold a polarizer in front of the lens and rotate it to suit, though I've never actually done that myself. > > Frankly I'd love a $3000 Nikon DSLR but it's like with guns. They say that > the smaller gun you can carry is better than the bigger gun that you have > to wind up leaving at home. Same with this. If it fits my purse, I have it > in a snap. <pun> If it's baggage, I probably would leave it at home most > of > the time, then I'd miss something like that video of Congressman ( Thug ) > Bob Etheridge if I saw something like that going on. :-) Yes, wasn't that something. > >> Yes, the 10x zoom is nice, provided it works well. I had (very briefly) >> a Coolpix S10 which also had a 10x zoom, nice lens except for its >> horribly unreliable autofocus at the longer focal lengths, which made it >> practically useless. I promptly returned it for that reason, the only >> Coolpix I have ever returned. Of course that doesn't mean the S8000 has >> a similar problem, but it did tend to make me leery of superzoom lenses >> in very small cameras. >> >> Other than that, the S8000 has what advantages? It's a 14-megapixel >> camera instead of the S640's 12, but the 12 is already cramming far too >> many pixels into such a tiny sensor as far as I'm concerned. I have >> Coolpixes in 8, 10, 12 and 14 megapixels -- and I routinely set them all >> to 5 megapixels. The Great Megapixel Race serves no purpose as far as I >> can see except to help manufacturers sell more cameras to people who >> think their pictures aren't sharp because they don't have enough >> megapixels. > > True. Well now that I have a HD 24" LCD monitor ( Asus VK246H ) and HDTV > at > home, I'm really enjoying true HD, so it would be awesome to be able to > take full HD photos and video and see them on these at home, even as > wallpaper. I see David has already pointed out that HDTV is only about two megapixels. And that's at the highest available resolution regardless of screen size: 1920 x 1080 = 2.07 megapixels.
From: Neil Harrington on 18 Jun 2010 11:29 "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message news:Xns9D9A921EB901FJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... > "Neil Harrington" <nobody(a)homehere.net> wrote : > >> >> "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message >> news:Xns9D9A179C458ABJaneGgulchxyz(a)216.196.97.142... >>> Looking some more, the S90 is also tempting, so it's between the >>> >>> S90 $350 >>> S8000 $250 >>> and SD4000IS $350 >>> >>> It would stretch the budget for the more expensive two ( $350 street >>> price ) >>> if it would bring $100 more joy to my shooting, but what's a credit >>> card for? >>> :) >> >> The two Canons you mention look sort of interesting, though if I were >> buying a Powershot I'd go the extra $100 for a G11. > > I mentioned that I could spring the extra from the $250 price of the S8000 > to the SD4000IS. Now you're talking $450. :) Creeping price here. LOL Yup. :-) > >> I don't know if >> you'd consider the G11 purse sized, however. > > > Not so much? > > > I looked up the S90, the S8000 and the SD4000IS: > > > S90 3.9 x 2.3 x 1.2 6.2 OZ. > S8000 4.1 x 2.3 x 1.1 6.5 OZ. > SD4000IS 3.9 x 2.1 x .9 6.1 OZ. > > G11 4.4 x 3 x 1.9 12.5 OZ. > > <sigh> The purse IS kinda big already, to hold the size and weight of the > XD-45 ACP and the 14 rounds of JHP. Hmmm.... I suppose one full magazine of .45s should be fairly close to the weight of the G11, and not TOO much difference in overall size. So think of it as more or less like carrying the extra magazine. > > Is the G11 THAT much better than the other 3? I think so, yes. I don't have one yet myself -- being mainly a Nikon guy -- but the G11 is really getting under my skin and I'm gonna have to get one soon. I need Yet Another Digital Camera like I need another navel, but heck, as a friend of mine used to say, "The one who dies with the most toys, wins." > ( thinking this is gonna cost me more... ) > > At what point will I need to start moving other stuff out of the purse to > make room for it? > > I like the size of the Cyber-Shot DSC-S750 that I have in there now. It's > in a little hard shell case. It just doesn't take very sharp pictures, and > after all, what's a camera for if not that? Oh and the video it takes are > tiny. And I love the idea of taking HD stills and video... > > IOW I want a new purse camera for my birthday. :-) I don't think you'd go wrong with any of those we've talked about. In the end the only FULLY satisfactory solution is to buy them all, as then you will never say, "Gee, maybe I should have bought ------ instead." But of course that solution has its obvious down sides as well.
From: John McWilliams on 18 Jun 2010 13:19 Neil Harrington wrote: > "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message >> Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a polarizing >> lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a bunch of stuff >> in >> there, including the XD-45 ACP, > > Ooooh. My kinda woman. (Though I'm mainly a Beretta guy myself.) Kinda like Rita, I bet. A lady but not a woman. -- john mcwilliams
From: Neil Harrington on 18 Jun 2010 13:27
"John McWilliams" <jpmcw(a)comcast.net> wrote in message news:hvg9ra$dna$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > Neil Harrington wrote: >> "Jane Galt" <Jane_G(a)gulch.xyz> wrote in message > >>> Exactly. I'd love to have a nice Nikon DSLR, so I could have a >>> polarizing >>> lens and all, but it IS for my purse and I already have a bunch of stuff >>> in >>> there, including the XD-45 ACP, >> >> Ooooh. My kinda woman. (Though I'm mainly a Beretta guy myself.) > > Kinda like Rita, I bet. A lady but not a woman. Really? What makes you think that? |